


Yeah, okay.

by weekend_conspiracy_theorist



Series: Leather Jackets and Lab Coats [7]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 17:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5548388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weekend_conspiracy_theorist/pseuds/weekend_conspiracy_theorist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cisco's been her best friend since middle school, so Caitlin's feeling a little irrationally jealous when he drags makes a new friend and drags Caitlin out to a campfire to meet her.</p><p>Unfortunately for her, it's hard to maintain jealousy in the face of gorgeous, charismatic Lisa Snart.</p><p>(Stands alone.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yeah, okay.

**Author's Note:**

> you know that ao3 tag generator, the one that that tumblr post says you should use to see what tag describes your life?
> 
> well, "celebratory campfire eye sex" didn't remind me of my life, but it did make me think about a killergold high school au

A little cloud rises in front of her every time she huffs out a breath, hangs in the air and catches what little moonlight sneaks through the maze of branches and leaves above her head. She shoves her hands further in her pockets, wishing desperately that she'd had the forethought to bring gloves. She may have an icy disposition according to her ex-boyfriend and current friend-slash-lab partner, Ronnie Raymond, but that doesn't mean she likes being physically cold.

 

She tugs her scarf up over her nose and huddles down into it, shoulders practically up around her ears, and jogs for a few twig-cracking steps to catch up to Cisco. It's the light of his phone screen, more than anything, that's allowing them to navigate—if she falls too far behind, she'll probably twist her ankle on an unseen root rising up through the trail.

 

She's only having trouble keeping up because Cisco's a man on a mission, practically marching his way through the forest due to his excitement. His new, "super awesome," probably jerk-ish friend (Caitlin is _not_ jealous about Cisco having a close friend other than her, you take that _back_ ) has asked them to come to the weekly Friday night post-football campfire. She wants to meet Caitlin, who's not in their physics class and has been too busy with AP Calc and AP Chemistry to hang out with them before now.

 

(Apparently New Girl's new enough to both be curious about the campfire and to not have made any friends other than the nerdiest guy in school.)

 

They hear the party long before they see it—some kid's blasting Top Forty songs from a speaker they've hooked up to their phone, flames crackle and pop as they eat through the kindling and branches provided for them, and people shout and talk and laugh while they roast marshmallows and drink lemonade (and possibly other things) out of red plastic cups. The flames and the people start to come into view as they move closer, and Caitlin feels a vague tendril of her normal social anxiety join the irrational dislike of New Girl already curling in her gut.

 

Then Cisco tosses her a grin- the same infectious one that convinced her to befriend him even when he told her he hated microbiology- and wiggles his eyebrows. She can't help but reluctantly grin back at him, though he can't see it through her scarf, and forces her trepidations away.

 

(She may be in the middle of a cold, wet forest at 2 AM, rather than being back at her house either asleep or curled up with a good book and a cup of tea, but at least she's with her best friend.)

 

"You're going to love Lisa," Cisco promises, knowing her well enough to know at least a bit of what's running through her mind. He throws an arm around her shoulders, tugs her tightly in against his side with a snicker. "And once you realize that you want to see her all the time and that every once in a while you can take a night off from working, we won't have to do crazy stuff like this just to have a reason to hang out."

 

Caitlin slides her arm around his waist, hopes her frown is readable in the crease of her brow. "Cisco, I thought you said that Lisa and I are nothing alike and we'll probably drive each other crazy."

 

"In a good way!" He insists, laughs when she huffs and rolls her eyes.

 

They've reached the first outer ring of kids, the ones who moved away from the flames because the smoke was giving them a headache or they were trying to hold a conversation and drifted to the outskirts. Cisco tucks his phone back into his pocket; the orange and yellow flickering glow of the fire is enough to guide their footsteps now.

 

The campfire is large, set in a firepit built by the family who owns the land, and there's an old card table, covered in the various things necessary for s'mores. Some kids crowd around the table, claiming supplies, while others are strewn around the small clearing, and the rest crowd around the fire itself, sticks and marshmallows in hand. There are only around thirty people present, total—for most of the school, the allure of the campfire has long since faded.

 

Cisco cranes his neck to search the crowd for his friend, and Caitlin lets her arm drop away from his waist, ducks out from under his arm so she can look, too. She's never met Lisa, of course, but Cisco's described her. Blonde hair, tall, wearing a leather—

 

"Is that her?" she asks, points to the other side of the clearing. As Cisco looks over, the girl Caitlin's pointing to spots them as well, raises a hand in a wave.

 

"Yep, that's her," he says cheerfully, waving back.

 

Caitlin studies her—she's leaning against the trunk of a tree, an almost-reluctant smile spreading across her face as Cisco continues to beam at her. She pushes away from the tree and runs her hand through a perfect waterfall of wavy golden hair; the motion also flaunts the way the sleeves of her jacket are pushed up to her elbows to reveal tanned, muscular forearms, and—

 

 _Shit_.

 

Cisco grabs her arm, not realizing she's internally cussing herself out for being attracted to the enemy, and drags her along as he strides over to Lisa. When they get there (or somewhere vaguely halfway, as Lisa had walked towards them as well), he shoves Caitlin in front of him. "Lisa, this is Caitlin. Caitlin, Lisa." He gestures from one to the other, practically bouncing on his toes from excitement.

 

"Heard a lot about you," Lisa drawls, holding out her hand. The grin she'd been giving Cisco has faded into something tighter, her body language shifted from relaxed to stiff, and Caitlin's immediate instinct is to bristle right back—until she realizes Lisa's nervous to meet her. That Lisa's probably worried that if she and Caitlin don't get along, she'll lose the only friend she currently has. (Cisco's mentioned a brother, but he's already out of the foster system, struggling to support himself and with little time to do much more than call his younger sister once a week or so.)

 

Caitlin tugs her scarf away from her mouth and nose, letting Lisa see the warm smile on her face, and accepts the handshake. (She feels a little thrill at the skin-to-skin contact, and she tells herself it's just her imagination. That there's nothing special about Lisa's touch compared to any other, except that Lisa's hands are thin, strong, impossibly warm for her lack of gloves.)

 

(This does nothing to stop her stomach from erupting in butterflies.)

 

"He's told me a lot about you, too," she tells Lisa, laughing slightly. "Is that because he likes us, or does he just talk a lot?"

 

"The latter," Lisa tells her, smirking as she relaxes slightly, and Cisco lets out a squawk.

 

"How dare you sully my good name in this fashion? What have I ever done to you, to have you claim that I 'talk a lot?' I have never in my life strung more than three words together at any one—" he breaks off, making a face, and scratches his head. "Didn't think that fake indignance out so well, did I?"

 

Caitlin and Lisa exchange a glance, Lisa with a tiny little grin hovering on her lips, Cait struggling fiercely not to laugh.

 

"Not so much," Lisa says, tone dry, and though she turns her chin slightly towards Cisco, her attention is still on Caitlin. Her eyes flick down to their still-clasped hands, her grin widening.

 

Caitlin feels herself flushing beyond the rosiness induced by the cold and pulls her hand away from Lisa's, clears her throat. Turns to Cisco just in time to catch his eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline, a disbelieving grin stealing across his face.

 

"S'mores!" she blurts, and she can see Lisa's grin grow even wider in her periphery. "We came here for s'mores, right?" she says forcibly, glare daring Cisco to comment on her still-reddening face.

 

"Uh huh." Cisco's shoulders are shaking from silent laughter. (She grits her teeth, wondering why she's even friends with him when he delights in embarrassing her.) "That we did, Caity Cait. That we did."

 

Caitlin lifts her chin, turns on her heel to lead the way over to the card table—but Lisa doesn't even try to keep her voice low when she says to Cisco, "You never mentioned she was so cute. Or whether or not she's dating anyone."

 

Cisco cackles. "She broke up with her boyfriend like two months ago; you're _golden_."

 

Caitlin spins back to them, opening her mouth to snap at Cisco to mind his own business, but she sees Lisa first—sees her eyes skimming over Caitlin, sees her biting her lip just so, an expression in her eyes that hints at the thoughts running through her head.

 

Caitlin's jaw snaps shut, and she swallows hard.

 

"Date me," Lisa says, tucking her hands into the pockets of her skinny jeans as her eyes meet Cait's, and grins at the way Caitlin's mouth opens in a perfectly silent "oh" of surprise.

 

The grin starts to falter when Caitlin stays frozen in place for a moment that feels like an hour, thoughts racing through her mind. She barely knows Lisa, isn't even certain on the girl's last name, and there's a part of her that wants to point that out, to get annoyed by Lisa's brazenness and tell her to go to hell... and there's another part of her that thinks Lisa's gorgeous, that there's something charismatic in the way she holds herself and the teasing tone of her voice, that there's no way she's an awful person if Cisco likes her so much.

 

"Yeah, okay," she says.

 

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand suddenly Cisco's a third wheel


End file.
